High density hydrogen storage material

ABSTRACT

A hydrogen storage material. The hydrogen storage material is a combination of LiBH 4  with MH x , wherein greater than about 50% of M comprises Al.

CROSS-REFERENCE

This application claims the benefit of provisional application U.S. Application Ser. No. 60/692,332 filed Jun. 20, 2005 entitled “High Density Hydrogen Storage Material.”

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

This invention was made with government support under Contract No. DE-FC36-04GO14013. The government has certain rights in the invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to hydrogen storage materials, and more particularly to high density hydrogen storage materials.

Hydrogen is desirable as a source of energy because it reacts cleanly with air producing water as a by-product. Hydrogen-fueled vehicles, such as hydrogen internal-combustion engine (H₂ICE) or hydrogen fuel cell (H₂FC) vehicles, require an efficient means of storing hydrogen as a fuel on-board the vehicle. Although on-board reforming of hydrocarbons could solve the problem of hydrogen storage, it is widely dismissed today as energetically inefficient. On-board reforming could also negate many of the potential environmental benefits associated with H₂ICE or H₂FC vehicles. A strong enabler towards achieving full customer acceptance and wide-scale commercial viability across a wide array of vehicle platforms would be hydrogen-fueled vehicles that meet or exceed attributes of current gasoline internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, such as vehicle range and cost. Assuming that a hydrogen storage system should not take substantially more volume or weight than today's gasoline fuel storage systems, but should effectively deliver the same energy content puts an extremely high burden on the density of the hydrogen storage systems. Even under the most optimistic scenarios of fuel cell efficiencies, the resulting hydrogen storage density far outpaces currently available technologies, both by volume and by weight. Finding a high density material for hydrogen storage is one of the key bottlenecks towards the widespread use of hydrogen-fueled vehicles.

Currently available technologies for hydrogen storage fall into several broad categories: physical storage, chemical storage, and reversible solid-state storage. Physical storage includes high-pressure tanks and cryogenic liquid storage of H₂. Storage of H₂ in gaseous form, even at very high pressures such as 10,000 psi (700 bar), results in a very low energy density by volume. Comparing the energy densities contained in the fuel, gasoline has about 6 times the energy density by volume of 10,000 psi H₂ and about 10 times the density of 5,000 psi H₂. Cryogenic storage of hydrogen in liquid form improves the volumetric density, although it still does not approach the density of gasoline. In addition, there are complications associated with on-board cryogenic storage, such as latency/boil-off.

Chemical storage, such as the NaBH₄ (Millenium Cell) approach, involves a compound that liberates H₂ when reacted. The reactions are often with water. However, the reactions transform the fuel into a byproduct that must be recycled back into fuel off-board the vehicle. Current technologies suffer from unacceptably high energetic costs to recycle the fuels.

Reversible solid-state storage is an approach in which H₂ is liberated from a solid state material by applying heat, and the spent material can be regenerated on-board the vehicle by applying H₂ under pressure. This approach is attractive because it improves the volumetric density of the stored H₂, and it even has the potential to exceed the density of liquid H₂. It also avoids the problems of off-board regeneration associated with the chemical storage techniques. Current reversible solid-state storage materials suffer from one of two significant drawbacks (or both): 1) the storage material is very heavy, so while the volumetric density can be high, the density by weight, or gravimetric density, is low; or 2) the storage material binds the hydrogen too strongly, and thus requires too much heat/energy to liberate the H₂.

Therefore, there is a need for a light weight hydrogen storage material with high storage density, and hydrogen binding that will allow the material to reversibly store and release hydrogen with modest energy input.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention meets that need by providing a suitable hydrogen storage material. It is a light weight material with a high storage density. It has hydrogen binding that should make it easily reversible at near-ambient temperatures. The storage material is LiBH₄ combined with MH_(x), wherein greater than about 50% of M comprises Al.

Another aspect of the invention is a hydrogen storage material comprising LiBH₄ combined with MH_(x), wherein greater than about 50% of M comprises Al, wherein the hydrogen storage material has an enthalpy of reaction in a range of from about 50 to about 80 kJ/mol H₂, wherein the hydrogen storage material reversibly stores at least 8 wt % H₂, and wherein the hydrogen storage material has a single-crystal volumetric density about 50% higher than liquid H₂.

Another aspect of the invention is a method of reversibly producing a source of hydrogen gas. The method includes providing a hydrogen storage material comprising LiBH₄ combined with MH_(x), wherein greater than about 50% of M comprises Al; heating the hydrogen storage material at a temperature less than 100° C. to release hydrogen and forming a spent hydrogen storage material; and regenerating the hydrogen storage material by exposing the spent hydrogen storage material to hydrogen gas under elevated pressure and temperature.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a graph showing the decomposition enthalpies (i.e., the negative of the formation enthalpies) of various metal diborides.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Lithium borohydride, LiBH₄, appears to be an excellent candidate for a hydrogen storage material. LiBH₄ has an extremely high density of hydrogen, both by weight (18.5 wt %) and by volume (38.4H₂/nm³), which is nearly twice that of liquid H₂ (21.1 H₂/nm³), and more than five times the density of compressed 350 bar hydrogen (7.0 H₂/nm³).

However, LiBH₄ has long been viewed as an irreversible chemical storage compound in the class of Millennium Cell approaches (e.g., NaBH₄), where hydrogen is released by reacting the compound with water, forming a byproduct that cannot be recharged on-board the vehicle. In contrast, reversible metal hydrides liberate hydrogen by application of heat, and can be reversibly rehydrided back to their initial state by applying elevated pressure. LiBH₄ has not been considered in this “reversible hydride” class because the hydrogen is bound so strongly that it can be released only at very high temperatures, and the compound cannot be subsequently regenerated with pressure. Significant hydrogen is not released from LiBH₄ below temperatures of about 500° C. (typical PEM fuel cells operate at about 80° C.), well above the melting point of the compound (˜270° C.), where the decomposition takes place presumably through a reaction such as: 2LiBH₄→2LiH+2B+3H₂ (1) The hydrogen in LiH is even more strongly bound and virtually inaccessible, as LiH remains stable up to 900° C. To date, rehydriding the combination of LiH and B back to LiBH₄ has proved impossible, despite attempts up to 650° C. and 150 bar.

Recently, a procedure was described to make LiBH₄ reversible by mixing it with magnesium hydride, MgH₂. Magnesium hydride is another material that, similar to LiBH₄, contains a high density of hydrogen, but binds it too strongly to be practical for on-board storage applications. MgH₂ requires about 300° C. to decompose according to the reaction: MgH₂→Mg+H₂  (2) However, reaction (2) is reversible, i.e., MgH₂ can be formed from Mg and H₂ by applying pressure. The LiBH₄+MgH₂ mixture is believed to be effectively “destabilized” by this mixture, allowing one to reversibly store 8-10 wt. % H₂ via the following reaction: 2LiBH₄+MgH₂→MgB₂+2LiH+4H₂  (3) Reaction (3) is “effectively” destabilized relative to the sum of reactions (1) and (2) due to the formation of MgB₂ in reaction (3) as opposed to Mg+2B in reactions (1) and (2). The formation of the boride stabilizes the right-hand side of reaction (3) and hence effectively destabilizes the LiBH₄/MgH₂ mixture.

Although the discovery of this LiBH₄/MgH₂ mixture providing reversible 8-10 wt. % H₂ represents a significant step forward, it is still impractical because the reported mixture of reaction (3) still requires much too high a temperature (300° C.-400° C.) for hydrogen desorption. In other words, although the mixture is destabilized, it is not destabilized enough.

The temperature for hydrogen desorption from a solid-state system at fixed pressure is largely determined by the enthalpy of reaction (since the entropic contribution is dominated by that of H₂ gas, and is therefore largely constant across a wide variety of reaction types). To desorb H₂ at about 1-700 bar between 0-85° C., the material should have an enthalpy of reaction in the range of about 20-50 kJ/mol H₂. Current materials that desorb H₂ below 85° C. typically reversibly store only about 1-3 wt. % H₂. Examples of these current state-of-the-art low-temperature hydrides are metal hydrides based on LaNi₅, TiFe, or V, as well as NaAlH₄. Materials which have a known higher density currently have enthalpies outside this range, either more than about 50 kJ (i.e., they bind H₂ too strongly), or less than about 20 kJ (i.e., they bind H₂ too weakly). Thus, a high-density storage material desirably should have a hydrogen release reaction that has a reaction enthalpy in the targeted range of roughly ΔH of about 20-50 kJ/mol H₂.

Using density functional theory (DFT), a number of reactions were identified which had high gravimetric and volumetric density and an enthalpy in the targeted range of about 20-50 kJ/mol H₂. The DFT results are shown in Table 1. The results were validated by considering reactions which are known to occur only at high temperatures. The first three lines give energetics of reactions that are experimentally known to occur only at high temperatures. In agreement with experimental observations, the decomposition of LiBH₄, whether into LiH+B+3/2H₂ or into Li+B+2H₂, possesses an enthalpy (81.6 and 102.9 kJ/mol H₂, respectively) higher than the targeted range. MgH₂ also shows a decomposition enthalpy (62.6 kJ) outside the targeted range. The agreement between these calculated energetics and experimental observations of decomposition reactions supports the present invention. The reaction enthalpy of the LiBH₄/MgH₂ mixture has a lower enthalpy (66.1 kJ) than pure LiBH₄ itself (81.6 kJ), which is in agreement with the recently reported work on this mixture. Thus, the mixture effectively serves to destabilize LiBH₄. TABLE I Energetics of reactions involving destabilized LiBH₄ Single-Crystal Volumetric Density wt. % (H₂/nm³)* ΔH (kJ/mol H₂) Reaction H₂ VASP (PAW-GGA) Dehydriding LiBH₄ 2LiBH₄ → 2LiH + 2B + 3H₂ 13.9 28.8 +81.6 LiBH₄ → Li + B + 2H₂ 18.5 38.4 +102.9 Dehydriding MgH₂ MgH₂ → Mg + H₂ 7.7 32.8 +62.6 “Destabilizing” LiBH₄ by mixing with MgH₂ 2LiBH₄ + MgH₂ → MgB₂ + 2LiH + 4H₂ 11.6 29.7 +66.1 2LiBH₄ + Mg → MgB₂ + 2LiH + 3H₂ 8.9 23.6 +67.2 Present invention 4LiBH₄ + 2AlH₃ → 2AlB₂ + 4LiH + 9H₂ 12.4 32.6 +54.9 4LiBH₄ + 2Al → 2AlB₂ + 4LiH + 6H₂ 8.6 26.7 +77.2 4LiBH₄ + MgH₂ → MgB₄ + 4LiH + 7H₂ 12.4 29.3 +68.4 2LiBH₄ + TiH₂ → TiB₂ + 2LiH + 4H₂ 8.6 31.8 +22.0 2LiBH₄ + VH₂ → VB₂ + 2LiH + 4H₂ 8.4 32.6 +25.1 2LiBH₄ + ScH₂ → ScB₂ + 2LiH + 4H₂ 8.9 30.5 +49.2 2LiBH₄ + CrH₂ → CrB₂ + 2LiH + 4H₂ 8.3 33.0 +34.7 2LiBH₄ + 2TiH₂ → 2TiB + 2LiH + 5H₂ 7.0 34.0 +44.1 2LiBH₄ + 2Fe → 2FeB + 2LiH + 3H₂ 3.9 25.9 +33.2 2LiBH₄ + 4Fe → 2Fe₂B + 2LiH + 3H₂ 2.3 20.0 +22.2 *For comparison, other volumetric densities (in units of H₂/nm³): Liquid H₂ at 20 K: 21.2 Compressed H₂ at 350 bar (300 K): 7.0 Compressed H₂ at 700 bar (300 K): 11.7 DOE 2005 Target: 10.8 DOE 2010 Target: 13.6 DOE 2015 Target: 24.4 NaAlH₄ → NaH + Al + 3/2 H₂ (VASP-GGA): 22.0

We considered reactions that contain a high density of H₂, but with energetics that fall within the targeted range for near-ambient desorption. Specifically, we searched for reactions of the form: $\begin{matrix} {{{y\quad{LiBH}_{4}} + {MH}_{x}}->{{MB}_{y} + {y\quad{LiH}} + {\frac{{3y} + x}{2}H_{2}}}} & (4) \end{matrix}$ using known stable metal hydrides, MH_(x), and known stable metal borides, MB_(y). We limited our search to relatively light-weight elements, and show results for: M=Al (x=3 and 0; y=2), M=Mg (x=2 and 0; y=2 and 4), M=Ti (x=2; y=2 and 1), M=V (x=2; y=2), M=Sc (x=2; y=2), M=Cr (x=2; y=2), and M=Fe (x=0; y=1 and ½.

FIG. 1 shows the decomposition enthalpies of various diborides. The decomposition enthalpy is the negative of the formation enthalpy (a positive value indicates a stable boride).

Compared to the reported mixture of LiBH₄/MgH₂, the M=Al mixture of LiBH₄/AlH₃ provides enhanced storage density and further destabilization. However, there are some caveats associated with the use of Al. Changing MgH₂ to AlH₃ does further destabilize the reaction and increase the weight percent, but the heat of hydriding is higher than the targeted range (+55 kJ/mol H₂). In addition, rehydriding to form the very weakly-bonded AlH₃ might be a problem. The Al might combine to form alanate (e.g., LiAlH₄) rather than alane (AlH₃) which is unstable at ambient conditions. If the Al doesn't form AlH₃ upon rehydriding, but rather just remains Al metal, then the following reaction results upon subsequent cycles: 4LiBH₄+2Al→2AlB₂+4LiH+6H₂. The calculations show this reaction has a large heat of reaction (77.2 kJ/mol H₂), and thus would require a large amount of heat to liberate the hydrogen on subsequent cycles. The heat of hydriding for AlH₃ (less than about 80 kJ/mol H₂) is somewhat higher than the targeted range. Despite these difficulties, LiBH₄/AlH₃ can be useful in some circumstances.

A series of new reactions are predicted in Table I that possess high gravimetric and volumetric densities and have an enthalpy of reaction in the targeted range of about 20-50 kJ/mol H₂. The reactions of type (4) in Table I with M=Ti, V, Cr, and Sc are predicted to have enthalpies of reaction largely within the targeted range of 20-50 kJ/mol H₂, contain between 8-9 wt. % H₂, and have single-crystal volumetric densities approximately 50% higher than liquid H₂. These proposed reactions involving mixtures of LiBH₄ with TiH₂, VH₂, CrH₂, and SCH₂ provide a very significant destabilizing of LiBH₄, and the thermodynamics allow for hydrogen desorption near ambient conditions, utilizing only waste heat from H₂ fuel cell or H₂ internal combustion engine vehicles. Reactions of the type (4) in Table I with M=Fe also contain enthalpies of reaction near the targeted range, but with somewhat lower gravimetric densities (2-4 wt. %).

The existence of the series of reactions provides a likelihood of alloying to achieve specifically tailored properties. For the 3d transition metals M=Ti, V, Cr, and Sc, each of the hydrides in this series, TiH₂, VH₂, CrH₂, and SCH₂ forms with the same crystal structure (CaF₂-type) and is likely to possess mutual solubility and therefore alloying potential. The borides in this series, TiB₂, VB₂, CrB₂, and ScB₂, also form the same crystal structure (and the same structure as MgB₂ and AlB₂). Again, it is likely that solubility between these borides exists and could lead to significant alloying possibilities. Alloying these hydrides and borides could essentially allow one to tailor specific properties to precisely the values desired. Specific examples of the properties that could be tailored via alloying are: thermodynamics/heat of formation, optimum volumetric density, reactions with low volume change between hydrided/dehydrided states, low cost, or some optimal combination of the above properties.

For example, using alloying of Ti, V, Cr, and Sc, the general reaction would be of the form: 2LiBH₄+(Ti, V, Cr, Sc)H₂→(Ti, V, Cr, Sc)B₂+2LiH+4H₂  (5)

Preliminary results demonstrate the possibility of alloying these hydrides and borides. For instance, it is well known that there is complete solubility between MgB₂ and AlB₂. By performing a calculation of a hypothetical (Mg_(0.5)Al_(0.5))B₂ cell, we can estimate the heat of mixing of this mixture of MgB₂/AlB₂. We find ΔH_(mix)[(Mg_(0.5)Al_(0.5))B₂] about −11.5 kJ/mol formula unit showing that the mixed state is stable relative to the pure borides, in agreement with experiment. This simple test indicates that these types of computations can be used to predict whether or not alloying will occur between various hydrides or borides.

Another advantage of the use of 3d transition metal hydrides to destabilize LiBH₄ is in the possible use of these metals as catalyst atoms to promote the kinetics of hydriding/dehydriding in other complex hydride systems. Doping NaAlH₄ with a small amount of Ti is known to cause a significant acceleration of the kinetics of this material. Other 3d transition metals have similar effects, although not quite as good. In our reactions, a significant amount of 3d transition metal is already involved (e.g., in the form of TiH₂), and thus could have a similar catalytic/kinetic effect to these metals in other systems.

Generally, greater than about 50% of M comprises Al. Other metal hydrides can also be included, typically less than about 30%, less than 20%, less than 10%, or less than 5%.

Another benefit of reducing AH involves refueling. Just as heat is required to extract H₂ during operation, the reverse reaction of rehydriding the system during refueling will generate heat, often in significant quantities. For instance, even for NaAlH₄ with ΔH=37 kJ, a 5.6 kg H₂ system will liberate about 100 MJ. For a 10 minute refueling, this corresponds to an average of cooling of about 170 kW. Obviously, reducing ΔH will also reduce the amount of cooling required during refueling.

The significant destabilization of LiBH₄ by the additions with M=Ti, V, Cr, and Sc can be easily understood in terms of the decomposition/formation energies of the borides with these metals M. We can rewrite the enthalpy for reaction (4) as: $\begin{matrix} \begin{matrix} {{\Delta\quad{H\left( {{reaction}\quad 4} \right)}} = \frac{2}{{3y} + x}} \\ {\left\lbrack {{\frac{3y}{2}\Delta\quad{H\left( {{LiBH}_{4}/H_{2}} \right)}} + {\frac{x}{2}\Delta\quad{H\left( {{MH}_{x}/H_{2}} \right)}} -} \right.} \\ \left. {\Delta\quad{H\left( {{MB}_{y}/M} \right)}} \right\rbrack \end{matrix} & (6) \end{matrix}$ where ΔH(LiBH₄/H₂) is the enthalpy of LiBH₄ decomposition (per H₂) via reaction (1), ΔH(MH_(x)/H₂) is the enthalpy of the metal hydride MH_(x) decomposition (per H₂), and ΔH(MB_(y)/M) is the decomposition enthalpy of the metal boride, MB_(y) (per M atom) (i.e., the negative of the formation enthalpy for MB_(y)—a positive value indicates a stable boride). For the specific case of x=y=2 (MH₂ and MB₂), this expression becomes: $\begin{matrix} \begin{matrix} {{\Delta\quad{H\left( {{{reaction}\quad 4};{y = {x = 2}}} \right)}} = \frac{1}{4}} \\ {\left\lbrack {{3\Delta\quad{H\left( {{LiBH}_{4}/H_{2}} \right)}} + {\Delta\quad{H\left( {{MH}_{2}/H_{2}} \right)}} -} \right.} \\ \left. {\Delta\quad{H\left( {{MB}_{2}/M} \right)}} \right\rbrack \end{matrix} & (7) \end{matrix}$

From these expressions (6) and (7), it is clear that the enthalpy of reaction (4) is given by the average of the decomposition enthalpies of LiBH₄ and MH₂ and effectively destabilized by the decomposition enthalpy of the boride. FIG. 1 shows the first-principles calculated ΔH values for metal diborides, MB₂. These energies show that the transition metal diborides have much larger enthalpies of decomposition than the borides with Mg or Al. These larger ΔH values thus explain the larger amount of destabilization of LiBH₄ for the reactions involving the transition metal borides.

Having described the invention in detail and by reference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that modifications and variations are possible without departing from the scope of the invention defined in the appended claims. More specifically, although some aspects of the present invention are identified herein as preferred or particularly advantageous, it is contemplated that the present invention is not necessarily limited to these preferred aspects of the invention. 

1. A hydrogen storage material comprising: LiBH₄ combined with MH_(x), wherein greater than about 50% of M comprises Al.
 2. The hydrogen storage material of claim 1 wherein the hydrogen storage material has an enthalpy of reaction of less than about 80 kJ/mol H₂.
 3. The hydrogen storage material of claim 1 wherein the hydrogen storage material reversibly stores at least 8 wt % H₂.
 4. The hydrogen storage material of claim 1 wherein hydrogen desorption takes place at a temperature of less than 100° C.
 5. The hydrogen storage material of claim 1 wherein the hydrogen storage material has a single-crystal volumetric density about 50% higher than liquid H₂.
 6. A hydrogen storage material comprising: LiBH₄ combined with MH_(x), wherein greater than about 50% of M comprises Al, wherein the hydrogen storage material has an enthalpy of reaction less than about 80 kJ/mol H₂, wherein the hydrogen storage material reversibly stores at least 8 wt % H₂, and wherein the hydrogen storage material has a single-crystal volumetric density about 50% higher than liquid H₂.
 7. The hydrogen storage material of claim 6 wherein hydrogen desorption takes place at a temperature of less than 100° C.
 8. A method of reversibly producing a source of hydrogen gas comprising: providing a hydrogen storage material comprising LiBH₄ combined with MH_(x), wherein greater than about 50% of M comprises Al; heating the hydrogen storage material at a temperature less than 100° C. to release hydrogen and forming a spent hydrogen storage material; and regenerating the hydrogen storage material by exposing the spent hydrogen storage material to hydrogen gas under elevated pressure and temperature.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein the hydrogen storage material has an enthalpy of reaction of less than about 80 kJ/mol H₂.
 10. The method of claim 8 wherein the hydrogen storage material reversibly stores at least 8 wt % H₂.
 11. The method of claim 8 wherein the hydrogen storage material has a single-crystal volumetric density about 50% higher than liquid H₂. 